Beholding the Lord through His word, part II
John 1:1-18 · Vern Peterman · Mar 11, 2007
Beholding the Lord (2007), No. 02
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/492602066135

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Good morning. We'll be charging into the passage shortly. I wanted to take a couple of minutes before we do that, however. And I'd just like to make sure that we appreciate and recognize those who contribute to the health of our church body here. People whose hands work swiftly, certainly far better than mine. across the keyboard, those who take the piano bench and carry out the leading of worship here.

And it's amazing, no matter what we throw at them, they seem to be able to take it on. And so we just greatly appreciate that. That's just the beginning. We, of course, have those who watch after our facilities here and keep things in top shape. And we greatly appreciate it.

I'm just amazed myself of how they work, how would I say, tirelessly at the various things that are around here and keep things up and make improvements, doing whatever is necessary to make things work properly. And in doing so, don't even give it a thought. Okay. Beyond that, there are those who really get into the technology here and become involved in the workings.

And we greatly appreciate their involvement with all the inner workings here at Holly Hills, taking advantage of the latest in portable technology. And we certainly appreciate their efforts in that, keeping things cleaned up and dealing with every problem as it comes along.

And so that's a thing for which we're very thankful. We are also thankful for those who take such wonderful care of our little ones, and we greatly appreciate that. Even those who then work with our children who are older to bring along things to them to help them learn from the things that are around to illustrate Scripture. And so we greatly appreciate every effort in that regard. demonstrating at every turn the Lord's hand and the Lord's teachings. And so we're greatly appreciative of that. Certainly, even of those who do the small things that we certainly notice at different times. Even making the coffee, for instance. And so we certainly appreciate that.

Anyway, I didn't want to go without being said that we appreciate all the challenges that people take on. And that people boldly go forth and take on these things for the benefit of the body here. And so we say thank you, we appreciate it, and may the Lord's name be praised.

We'll dismiss those now who need to lead our children and take care of other things, like getting inside those computers. Anyway, all right. We have a passage here, the first 18 verses of the Gospel of John. And I just want to kind of backtrack a little bit. Last week we talked about, for the month of March, introducing a short or brief series, Beholding the Lord Through His Word. We'll continue on with the second part of that this week, looking at John 1, 1-18.

Last week we looked at 2 Corinthians 3.18. We'll next week and then the week following look at a couple more passages, 1 John 1, 1-4 and Hebrews 12, 1 and 2.

One of the points that we made last week is that we want to see things clearly. It doesn't do much good to see a moose blurry like this. You want to see a moose clearly, most certainly. Now, how do we apply that? It matters, as we pointed out last week, that we behold the Lord clearly. When we behold the Lord through His Word, we want to see what exactly did the Lord say? What did the Lord inspire for our benefit? and to not see things in a foggy or distorted manner, but to see it as the Lord wrote it, as the Lord revealed it, because of His love for us.

One of the things that we laid out was there is a sequence in studying scripture, and you have this on page one of your handout. This number, if you're visiting with us here, is the number in the lower right corner. That's the first page in your handout. And we talked about the first step is to observe, then to interpret, then to apply, and then to appropriate. And this is a key step we don't want to overlook.

I would say a lot of academic study can be done that just stops short. It is God's intent that Scripture be applied, even doctrine. Doctrine isn't just something we look at and we say, that's great, put it on the shelf and say, we'll stand by that as far as I can remember it. No. Doctrine is to be lived.

One of the things we said about that first step, observing, is that it involves looking at the language and the literary content. What does the language say? It involves looking at history and even the sequence of things. And finally, what's the cultural context that this was set in? We've pointed out in the past that there are figures of speech, for example, that we use that will vary from one culture to another. It's important to understand the figures of speech that are used in scripture.

Okay, now, one of the things we pointed out, and boy, this has been for months, through Isaiah, and we'll point it out again this morning, there is a manner of writing that is often used in both the Old and New Testaments. And this passage is a part of that pattern, and that's called a chiasm.

It's a mirror image in writing. It reflects around the middle. And so this is the photograph to illustrate it. Here's the pattern. You have it on page one laid out. And so this whole passage we're looking at here this morning has that character to it. And what is typical of a lot of these chiasms, these mirror images in writing, is the middle of it is the focal point, is the emphasis of the passage. So you want to say, if we were to look at this whole set of verses and say, what's John trying to get across? Here it is right there. Why did he write this? So that you might believe. His purpose. So we're looking at language to understand that. Now, to get the high points. We've got 18 verses, that's a lot of verses. The high points. First five verses focus on the deity of Christ.

Christ is not just some really good human being who worked really hard at it and did a good job. He's not just simply an example in that respect, but He is in fact God. We'll look at that more this morning. There is also the next part, 6-13, John the Baptist as a witness is the central summary high point in there. And the last verses, the ones that we'll be zeroing in on more this morning, is the Word made flesh. Jesus Christ, the Word, the expression of God Himself made flesh.

John 1 through 18 draws from old, and I put here old Old Testament passages. The first part of it draws from Genesis 1. We'll see in here, in the beginning, it talks about light and darkness, just like Genesis 1. Life and the world was made through him. All the messages and even specific words and phrases out of Genesis 1 are used.

The next, verses 11 through 13, draws from Genesis 16, talking about Abraham and his descendants. We'll see that shortly as well. And interestingly, the last verses, 14 through 18, draw from Exodus 33. This is in the tabernacle, the tabernacle that was used to worship the Lord out in the desert. And interestingly, those verses, as we'll see, draw from Exodus 33. all the way to cannot see God directly that was just emphasized in the passage that Courtney read through us.

Some of the things we want to note here as we step into John's gospel, and of course this morning only be looking at the beginning of it, Paul wrote like a logician. Some have even said he wrote like a lawyer, but I'm a little reluctant to say that. John wrote more like a musician, oftentimes with literary drama even. Here's some examples. Here's Paul. It was for freedom that Christ set us free. Therefore, here's the logic. Therefore, keep standing firm and do not be subject again to the yoke of slavery.

Example out of Galatians 5.1.

How did John write? As we went through the book of Revelation several years back, one of the things we noted John wrote with these repeated crescendos of heavenly scenes, 150 verses going back and forth between the earth and the heavenly scenes. And working up, he wrote as if it were a musical score. So one of the other things we also note about John is John maintained words, phrases, and themes within the passage that he wrote and from book to book.

Almost, and we'll use this comparison and illustrate it in a bit, almost like a relay race, passing the baton from one to the next. Here are some examples in John's Gospel and Revelation. We'll only point out, so I'll leave this to you to research on your own.

This first one, John wrote about Christ being the logos, that is the word, the expression of God. That also shows up in Revelation. And we'll point this one out, the tabernacle of God in verse 14. And if you're observant, you'll already be saying, I don't see any tabernacle in verse 14. We'll explain that in a minute. Okay. So if you're puzzled, go ahead, keep scratching your head, but not too long. I don't want any damage here, but we will, we'll get there. Okay.

Now, John also had a pattern of telling us why he wrote. It's interesting. Not all of the, uh, Authors of Scripture explicitly do that. But John typically, in his major works, would write, this is why I'm writing this. He would give us the purpose. And finally, John was really big on declaring the truth and reality of what he wrote.

He started off, for example, the book of Revelation, the first eight verses is in the form of what was in his day legal certification. I certify that this is true. Here's how I got it. John was really big on doing that, and he appeals to that some in this book as well. He's looking at elements of language as we go through this. Here's an example of how John did some passing on a theme from one book to the next.

Here's John 1.1 we're looking at this morning. He refers to the Word was God. And then we go to verse 14, and the Word became flesh.

In 1 John 1.1, he talks about the Word of Life.

And then in Revelation 19.13, he calls Christ the Word of God.

He carries on a theme from one book to the next as we step through it. So, John wrote with words like they were a baton in a relay race. Here, here's the next one. Passing it on to the next one. Passing it on to the next. passing words from book to book, phrases even from book to book, and passing names from verse to verse, as we'll see here shortly.

Here's how John wrote, why he wrote the book. He says, but these, and I'm reading starting at verse 31, but these have been written so that you may believe, and that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing, you may have life in his name." John states his purpose. It's interesting, John wrote about a hundred times in this gospel that we're beginning into here, Believe. Believe. Believe. Believe. Believe. He wrote it as action, not as a noun, but as action.

That was his pattern. And it starts in the middle of this chiasm, in the middle of this passage that we've got here this morning. Okay, as we look at these high points here, looking at each of these, let's start at the first one. The first five verses. In the beginning was the Word. One of the things we notice there, twice the phrase, in the beginning. Where have we seen that before? In the beginning?

This is out of Genesis 1.1.

John wrote about the relationship of Christ to God at the time of the beginning of this present universe, even with it built in, the implication that Christ was there before the universe was begun. He was with the Father. There are two Bible books that start with, in the beginning, and Genesis 1-1 is one of those. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The other is the one we're looking at here, John 1, 1-3. In the beginning. And what does he do? He explains the relationship of Christ to God and amplifies, created the heavens and the earth. Ah, what does he tell us in verse 3 of John 1?

All things came into being through Him, the Word, and apart from Him, the Word, nothing came into being that has come into being. So John 1-3 is a restatement of Genesis 1-1. He takes Genesis 1-1 and says, that's true, let me explain to you how Christ fits into this very passage.

One of the other things you notice, almost to the point of repetition, was he keeps talking about the Word, the Word, the Word, the Word, again and again. With God, the Word was God. The relationship between the Word and God. He had a very specific message, and he wasn't being purely repetitive, although certainly the focus is upon Christ, isn't it? So, what are these verses saying? What's he trying to tell us in these verses here? Here's how it steps through it. What John 1, 1 and 2 are saying is this.

Jesus Christ is God's personal expression. He existed from the very beginning. In the beginning was the Word. The next phrase, the Word was with God. Here is Jesus Christ, who is God's personal expression. He had fellowship from the beginning. with the Father and with the Holy Spirit. Even in Genesis 1, what do you see? Let us make man in our image. Jesus Christ, God's personal expression, was not just somebody who came along, was not just another created being, but was God Himself. The Word was God. The Word was God. And finally, His fellowship with the Father and the Holy Spirit was already there right at the beginning.

We read in John 17, here's John again. In John 17, we read of the prayer between Jesus Christ, ready to go to the cross. For the joy set before Him, ready to go to the cross. And here, in John 17, we read of the discourse of our Lord praying to the Father. There was fellowship from the beginning. John 17 is not some exception, but a continuation of the fellowship that had gone on since everything was created and before. Let's look at verse 3.

All things came into being through him, and apart from him nothing came into being that has come into being. Isn't that interesting? This, by the way, is a Hebrew poetry pattern, if you can handle that. The positive statement, all things came into being through him.

Then the negative statement. Apart from Him, nothing came into being. Nothing. Absolute. Here's the positive statement. Everything came into being through Him. Nothing else came about except through Him. He is the absolute creator of all. These statements here are absolute. All things, nothing. John's choice of words here are also absolute. Everything either came into being through Christ or it never did exist. He is the Creator of all. I look at the language here and it spells out clearly what the Lord has in mind. Here's how this handoff of the baton works here in this passage.

Remember we said that John passes names from verse to verse? And so what we see in verse one is the word repeated. And then in verse two, the pronouns following it, he and him. In verse four, we see the handoff to the next runner in the relay, so to speak, the life. And finally, the light. The light comes across. So the handoff is from the word, the pronouns, he and him, the life and the light. Now we get into verses 6-10, next section there.

There came a man sent from God, whose name was John. Now, interestingly, as you go through the Gospel of John, John the Apostle does not call himself John in the book. This John here is not the Apostle John. It is John, we call him John the Baptist, John the Baptizer.

Alright, so in verses 6 and 8, he introduces and describes more about this John the Baptist. And he'll just go on that more later on in the book here. These verses, John continues to call Christ into these verses about John the Baptist, the light. And he switches back to he and him as well.

Incidentally, and on top of that, John is the only one who actually calls Christ the Lamb in the Gospel of John and throughout the book of Revelation. In the book of Revelation, he calls Christ the one who carries out the judgments in the tribulation period. He calls him the Little Lamb, which by the law of Moses would be as little as eight days old. The Little Lamb, Christ is called.

As we look at this here, verse 7, it says, so that all might believe through him. This is John's first use of the word believe. One that he's going to use about a hundred times. Telling why John the Baptist came to testify. Do you believe? That's the question. See, that's the center point, as we mentioned of this passage, of this chiasm, this mirror image in writing. Notice, here he has the purpose very clearly, so that you may believe, that you may have life.

Now, notice his triple reference to the world in verse 10. Christ's relationship to the world, to the cosmos, in verse 10, in the world, and that the world was made through him, and the world responded to him in what way? did not know him. Now verses 11 through 13, he came to his own and those who were his own did not receive him. The world didn't know him, even those who were his own in the world didn't receive him. John gets specific, he goes from the world down to now, his own, the Jews. Christ said in Matthew 10 and Matthew 15, that He, or in another instance, He sent the disciples, go only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

His own. I have been sent only to these. His own. Did they receive Him? In general, no. Verse 12, as many as did receive Him. Ah, here are the exceptions to the generalization. His own in general did not receive Him. But there were some. As many as did, those exceptions, it was those who believed Him.

He gave them the right to become the children of God, even to those who believe in His name. That's where the relationship comes from. Those who believe. Verse 13, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." So here's how he describes the children of God, verse 12, who became so by means of believing, and then in verse 13 he describes how those who are not spiritually born. He gives that clarification. Not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. So what does this mean? It's kind of interesting words that John uses. So what does John mean by born?

Most of us have an idea what that means, but he has a particular meaning in mind. Let's take a look at it. We have the clue of context in verse 12 that says that those who receive Christ by believing in Him, and it doesn't happen otherwise, become, ginomai, children of God. We want to clarify something.

This word born that he uses is a word that comes from It means become, implies become by being born. Become by being born. To become a child of God is not something that the Lord just goes abracadabra, there's your magic wand. There is a birth process, there is a being born that's built into that becoming. That's the way it is with children, isn't it? They're born.

John is going to narrate, and just two chapters after this, we won't go into some details, but I do want to get a quick side light because I think it's insightful. John's going to narrate a private conversation between himself and Nicodemus. It's a conversation that's recorded nowhere else. That's going to shed more light on what does he mean by this being born thing? What is that all about? And why is it so important? Here's an interesting thing, a side light.

The six ways in which the Pharisees said a man could be born again. Now, first of all, the Jews taught amongst themselves, if you're a descendant of Abraham, you're in. I mean, you're there. Just because you're a descendant of Abraham. As a matter of fact, the Jewish mythology goes like this.

At the gate of hell, Gehenna, Abraham sits there on Judgment Day. And he makes sure that no Jew accidentally gets into hell. Because he knows those are descended from him. Because all the Jews would be descendants of Abraham and therefore not be sent to hell. So that was one point at which they said, well, hey, I'm descended from Abraham, I'm already in.

But they also had other ways that the Jews said amongst themselves that you were born again. A Jewish boy being bar mitzvahed at 13. was said to be born again. A Jewish man marrying a Jewish woman was said to be born again. And to be ordained a rabbi said to be born again. And then being the head of a rabbinical school on top of that also made you born again.

So here's Nicodemus thinking, oh man, I'm born again four times, right? And the Lord's saying, guess what? You, the teacher of Israel, have to be born again. He said, oh man, how am I going to do this more? There were two ways that Nicodemus didn't qualify. And so you can imagine Nicodemus, he's really going nuts trying to figure this one out. You could be a Gentile who converts to Judaism. He's saying, even if I go back in my mother's womb, that's not going to fix that. Or, you could be crowned a king of Israel under the line of David, and then you were also said to be born again. He said, well, even if I do that, that doesn't quite work. He's puzzled. Even if I go back into my mother's womb, is that going to fix it? The Lord's saying, no. John's point.

There's reason for writing this whole Gospel. Do you believe? These are written so that you believe. So we look at the culture to understand what John's saying here. Verse 13, "...who are born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." What's he saying there? Let's untie the nots. These are the negative statements that John makes. Being born a child of God, and interestingly, the Greek, although our English translations say blood, the Greek is actually plural here. Bloods.

So you've got a Jewess and a Jewish male, and the two of them get married, and you get a child offspring of that, that should be right down the line, because obviously they're descended from Abraham both ways. He says, that's not it. That isn't going to do it. Just being of a Jewish bloodline isn't going to get you an escape, like the Jewish mythology says, from hell. Being born a child of God is not the will of the flesh. There isn't something out of human desire. There is no strategies that you can pull off that make it happen. The next phrase is the will of man. Now, man here is specifically andros, which means male. It isn't just the will of a human being, but it's the will of a male. It isn't something that some male is going to pull off.

Notice in Genesis 16 and 17, here's Abraham And Sarah comes up with this idea, hey, you have a child by Hagar, my maidservant, and that'll carry off what God wants. Nope. Says that doesn't do it either. Instead, it is born of or born out of God. Born from Him. It's God's doing, not man's doing. It's God's accomplishment. Notice the preface to there. Believe in His name. That's the key. Not some kind of birth process that we strategize or happens automatically because you're of the right genetic strain. Verse 14 here.

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. As we look at that, imagine, here is John writing about things. He is writing because he says, I've seen these things up close and personal. I wasn't there at the birth, but I have met the Savior, and I have talked to those who were there. There's Mary. We know he had a relationship with Mary, Jesus' mother.

John was there as people were healed. Can you imagine, right there in front of you, people that were very, very obviously ill, diseased, injured, right before his eyes. Here's John, and by the way, here's John who was a fisherman, right? John was of a family where his father owned a fishing business. And he says, man, I know fishing. I know the Sea of Galilee.

The sea is into this storm like it's unbelievable. And he saw the Lord calm it instantly. That's got to get your attention. The Word became flesh. Imagine that. God's expression of Himself toward mankind became flesh like this. born of Mary in Bethlehem, a human being. He didn't cease to be God. His deity wasn't diminished, but humanity was added to it. Fully God, fully human. And dwelt. And here's where we have to explain the tabernacle of God.

The particular word that he chose for dwelt here is that he picked a particular one. And that's one of the reasons why we say it fits with Exodus 33, is because it means to live in a tent. Isn't that something? You could say, to use kind of a strange verb, He tented among us. He tented among us. In the books of the New Testament, only John used this word four other times, and in each case it's used for God dwelling with men. Tented among us.

Among us, and we saw His glory. We saw His glory. In this case, among us refers to Jesus having dwelt among the disciples and others in the company. It was those same ones who saw that King James has beheld His glory. The Greek word for saw or beheld means to look closely, to examine it carefully and intently.

The name above all names You are the love that will remain in heaven and earth Your glory is proclaimed You are the mighty great I Am Eternal praise and glory go to you. I cry, Lord, you are holy. I cry, Lord, you are worthy. I cry, Lord, A mighty soul in my life be glorified of Israel. Inside me your spirit dwells, so let your kingdom come. Reign in me, I cry Lord. You are holy, I cry Lord You are worthy, I cry Lord You are mighty, so in my life be glorified Lord, be glorified, be glorified in my life. Lord, be glorified today. I cry, Lord, You are holy. I cry, Lord, You are worthy. I cry, Lord, You are mighty. So in my life So in my life be glorified It's kind of amazing to think about it. Here is John and those in company with him. They look closely at his radiant essence. At the radiant essence of who he was. Jesus Christ glorious because of his deity.

Glorious of the only begotten from the Father. Now what does that mean? In order that we understand the magnitude of the glory, because this just wasn't a little bit of glorious, it was glory as of the only begotten from the Father, and so we need to look at that word.

This word is a word that John used more than any other New Testament author, and it is in this context meaning unique. Christ was unique. He was one of a kind of a group of people, sort of this way. No, He was uniquely this one. And that uniqueness had to do with His intimacy with and relationship with the Father. Unique. Unparalleled. No equal. As we look through the various examples of Scripture, there are certainly ways that the Lord expressed His uniqueness. We think of His birth was a unique birth. Amazing circumstances. Here is Simeon at the temple not long after Christ's birth. And he looks and says, oh, this is the one that we've been waiting for.

Stepping through it, here's Peter and John and other fishermen along the shore of Galilee. And they figure, hey, my father was a fisherman. We're all set up for it. We've got the fishing business. We know it down cold. We've got plenty of experience in it. There's no reason to abandon it.

Christ says, come and follow me. And they say, oh, oh, he's got my attention. This is one who is glorious. He was unique. The Greek here has no definite article. So, to the equivalent English, the. So John was focusing on the character of Christ's uniqueness. He was unique by character.

In keeping with the character of Christ being unique from the Father, having a unique relationship with the Father, John's also going to provide insights into the relationship of Christ with the Father in the ministry of the Holy Spirit, John 16, John 17.

Finally, full of grace and truth, John wrote that when Christ dwelt among them, they looked closely upon Christ's awesome, unique glory. Christ was likewise full of grace and truth. Now, glory, we've said, is the radiant essence of who God is. By Christ's character, He was also by character full of grace and truth, that character that is of God Himself. He was filled with God's character. Christ's capacity to express that character wasn't limited. It wasn't like, you know, if you look real closely, there's a tad bit of grace and truth there. No, He was the full expression of that grace and truth.

Verse 15, John testified about Him and cried out saying, Should I cry out? No. There's kids in the room. Okay. This was he of whom I said, he who comes after me has a higher rank than I pre-existed before me. John the Baptist was about six months older than Christ. He existed before me? Wait a minute. He also seems to have started his public ministry before Christ. So how could he say he existed before me?

Well, He proclaimed this because Christ, in fact, did exist before him. Not by physical birth, not even by the order of which one of them started ministry first, but because Christ was God. John 8, 58, 59, Christ introduces, Jesus said to them, truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am. So here is the Lord's own expression.

Not just before John. Not just before David. It was even before Moses. But before Abraham was born. And He didn't say, before Abraham was born, I was. Before Abraham was born, I always was. Before Abraham was born, I am now. Before Abraham was born, I will be.

How about that? Verse 16, of His fullness we have all received grace upon grace. Those who were with John and with Christ received of the fullness, notice how John is big on this fullness point here, of Christ's character. What did we say it was? Glory, grace, truth. About this grace that John said they received, he says, grace upon grace. Now what does that mean? Ever seen a grace pile? Grace upon grace? Is that what he means? No. So that may have us scratching our heads. Let's take a look. John is picturing a couple of things.

Abundance and continuity. There is abundance of grace. Lots of grace. And there is continuous grace. It doesn't come to some stopping point. And these are flowing from His infinite character. Non-stop. They come from Him. Not only are they continuous and abundant, but they continue to come from Him. It's personal. Verse 17 there. John makes it clear, doesn't he? Moses carried out his charge by passing on the law to Israel. 613 of them. 365 of them. Don't do this. Don't do that. Don't dare do that. Moses gave the law as spiritual and moral information. Here, do this. The Jews would become experts at this, as I have pictured here half-jokingly. They were Jewish ninjas. They were highly expert at carrying out this law. But guess what?

That still is not in any way equivalent to the grace and truth that Jesus Christ came not just to pass along, but to express fully. Realize through him in walking, talking, breathing, living human flesh, expressing God's character fully. But notice I put something in here, the grace, the truth. Why do I do that? There's a reason. And this is not in your handout, so make note if you like.

In verses 14 through 17, we find at the end of verse 14, there is, looking at the language closely, full of grace and truth, no definite article in front of those. The focus is upon the character of which he is full. If we look at verse 17, there are definite articles, same words, grace and truth, but definite articles for the laws given through Moses, but the grace and the truth realized through Christ. That's why Christ could come and say, I am the truth. Specifically Him.

No one has seen God at any time, it says in the beginning of verse 18. Now, you know, you read of various places in the Bible where the angel of the Lord appeared to people, Moses, He says he saw the hind parts of the Lord, you know, up on the mountain. So what's John saying here? People have seen God in some form. Well, God has taken visible form. Even Jesus Christ came in flesh. But no one can see God's essence, the essence of who He is.

And that is who He is basically, fundamentally. He is Spirit. He is an uncreated spiritual being. All of what we see is material, right? God who has existed from eternity past is an uncreated being and only expresses Himself in material but is not basically material.

Verse 18 in the middle of it says, The only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father. This is this only begotten phrase that we've seen before out of verse 14. It says He is uniquely, uniquely in the bosom of the Father. There is a unique relationship and fellowship between Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and the Father.

He has explained Him. What does that mean? It means that Jesus Christ explained and revealed and expressed the person and the character of God in human form. Not just that He talked a lot, Certainly he said many things, but he also expressed by living out the very character of God in human form.

God's glory, God's grace, God's truth. The character of God himself. Among us, we saw his glory. Think of it, here's at the Lord's baptism. As a voice came out of heaven, that had to have grabbed people's attention. That's glorious. Even, here's the Lord teaching the disciples. That's glorious. Seeing the Lord transfigured on the mountain. That was glorious.

Remember last week we talked about 2 Corinthians 3.18, but we all with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory. just as from the Lord, the Spirit. And this mirror, as we pointed out, is the Word of God in all three places in which it shows up in Scripture.

Here in our own passage, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory. Now who's we? It's John, isn't it? We read about John beholding His glory, and here's the amazing thing. We read about that and we are beholding Christ as we read about that. Isn't that amazing? We read about John writing, we beheld His glory. And as we read that, we behold the Lord's glory ourselves. How is that? How does that happen? It's a work of the Holy Spirit. It's the Lord's work. Here's the expanded and explained version.

And Jesus Christ, the Son of God, in God's communication of his essential being, came so as to be born in human form. And though total deity, he was dwelling in that human form even while among us, and we beheld, and oh, this is awesome, and we beheld his glory, that radiant essence of God himself. since Christ is the unique Son of, and expression from the Father, full of the grace and the truth, which are God's eternal and infinite character. As we behold John's description of how he and the disciples beheld Christ, we are beholding him as well, and as a work of the Holy Spirit, are made to grow in and into the glorious character of Jesus Christ. the glorious character that John beheld.

Here we show it graphically. Here's John writing, and we beheld his glory. And how the Apostle Paul wrote, and we all with open face beholding in God's word. See also the Lord, we behold the Lord, and are transformed from glory to glory into the same image. The image that John beheld. Let's pray. Lord, what an awesome thing this is. We behold another's beholding, and You use that to change us. We look through John's eyes by a work of the Holy Spirit to see the glory of the Lord and are transformed, are grown from glory to glory. You are doing, even this morning, a miracle, a marvelous thing. a thing that is awesome. We give you thanks for it. We pray that our hearts would be drawn, Lord, to the precious depths of your word. Because it's the precious depth of you. In Jesus' name, Amen.